Computational Biologist: Drug Discovery & Target Modeling

Placements24; Stellenbosch; On-site; ZAR 1,500,000 - 2,100,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Private medical insurance

Retirement annuity

Generous leave provisions

Conference funding

Professional training opportunities

Job summary

Placements24 in Stellenbosch seeks a Computational Biologist to help identify therapeutic targets and design drug candidates using cutting-edge computational approaches. You will work with bioscience and chemistry teams to translate data into actionable insights.

The role emphasizes large-scale data analysis, model building, and collaboration across disciplines in a state-of-the-art R&D setting.

Qualifications

• PhD in Computational Biology or related field.
• Strong experience in computational drug discovery or related areas.
• Proficiency in Python or R and libraries such as Biopython, RDKit.
• Solid understanding of molecular biology and disease pathways.
• Experience with cheminformatics and bioinformatics databases/tools.
• Familiarity with machine learning applied to biological/chemical data.

Responsibilities

• Apply computational methods to analyze genomic, proteomic, and transcriptomic data for target identification and validation.
• Develop and implement predictive models for drug efficacy, toxicity, and pharmacokinetic properties.
• Design and execute in silico experiments to explore biological pathways and molecular interactions.
• Collaborate with medicinal chemists and biologists to guide lead optimization efforts.
• Build and maintain databases of biological and chemical information.
• Develop custom software tools and scripts to facilitate research workflows.
• Visualize complex biological data and communicate findings to diverse audiences.
• Stay updated on the latest computational biology techniques and drug discovery technologies.
• Contribute to the strategic direction of computational drug discovery initiatives.

Skills

Python

R

Bioinformatics

Machine learning

Education

PhD in Computational Biology or related field

Tools

Biopython

RDKit

Job description

Placements24 in Stellenbosch seeks a Computational Biologist to help identify therapeutic targets and design drug candidates using cutting-edge computational approaches. You will work with bioscience and chemistry teams to translate data into actionable insights.

The role emphasizes large-scale data analysis, model building, and collaboration across disciplines in a state-of-the-art R&D setting.